Our Firstborn

I guess whenever a couple has a baby it truly is a miracle, but especially when the first baby arrives it seems that no one else on earth has ever had a baby before. Let’s face it: despite reading all the books you can on childbirth, parenting and raising kids, there just is no way to know what it’s like until it happens.

In 1979 Heber and I lived In Provo, Utah in a top portion of an old house at 284 E 100 N #3. Our rent was $125.00 a month. I remember my Uncle Harlan stopped by once and immediately proclaimed it a firetrap, which it surely was, but we were in love and all was well. Soon after marriage I found out I was pregnant and was so excited! I borrowed books from friends and read all about pregnancy and childbirth. My doctor was Dr. Lewis. Heber’s family soon started calling me Preg-Annette and when I was far along I loved singing “I am the beautiful reflection, of my love’s affection, a walking illustration of his adoration,” from the movie “Funny Girl.”

Picking out names proved rather tough…Heber and I didn’t agree on a lot of them. I remember that he really loved the name Truman because it sounded like True Man, but it just didn’t go well with Trunnell…Truman Trunnell. He also liked Gabriel for a boy, but I wasn’t too keen on it. For a girl’s name Heber loved Genevra which was supposedly from some poem, but I found it absolutely hideous (apologies to all you Genevra’s out there). I had always loved the name Lisa…I had two good friends named Lisa and I have a cousin Lisa who is wonderful. It just seemed like a beautiful no-nonsense name, and-- bonus-- Heber liked it, too! Since I didn’t have a middle name I decided that our baby (if a girl) would have no middle name either.

One thing Heber and I were in complete agreement on; no son of ours would ever be named Heber. Heber was named after his father and it has been a source of confusion and trouble for many years. That in itself is another story to write.

As the pregnancy progressed I continued to walk all over town every day (no car) and though somewhat nauseous, only threw up once. Heber’s brother Paul and his wife Bobbi were expecting, also, so we attended childbirth classes at the hospital. During the birth film Paul fainted. Heber came close. When Heber and Paul had a masonry job in Kanab, Utah we all stayed there in a trailer and had a lot of fun.

That Christmas I sold a painting and bought plane tickets to fly to California to be with my family. It was such a fun trip and I received money to purchase a sewing machine. I used it to make some clothes for the baby. We also went to Los Angeles with my parents to see the Broadway musical, Annie. What a fun time we had. It was our first Christmas together and our only one without kids.

A month before I was due we moved to a basement apartment a few blocks away…it had two bedrooms and a washer and dryer, a bigger kitchen, plus we were able to set up our new waterbed. I loved that basement apartment; it stayed snug warm in the winter and was right next to a nice quiet park. I don’t recommend moving when 8 months along, but it was a good move. By the way, when did we quit talking about pregnancies in months and start referring to how many weeks along instead?

My due date was May 12 which I believe was Mother’s Day. The big item in the news was Mt St. Helen’s imminent explosion which was interesting because I felt like exploding, too. On Tuesday, May 6, I attended a softball game that Heber was playing in. I sat on the sidelines and felt huge. That night at about 11:30 PM I woke up feeling hard contractions. I woke Heber up (or so I thought) and told him I thought I was in labor. He mumbled something about “it’s okay, you’re fine” and rolled over and fell back asleep. Okay….I guess we’ll wait. I could only stand it for a few hours and tried waking him again. This time he sat straight up and the fog in his head immediately cleared. We started timing contractions and when they were close enough we headed over to Utah Valley Hospital at around 3:00 AM. I was admitted and given an enema. My nurse was extremely crabby…the only nurse I’ve ever had in my life who wasn’t wonderful and of course it had to be my first experience with one! When the enema took effect I found myself in a terrible dilemma. I had to use the bathroom badly, I was also throwing up, I had Charlie horses in my feet and oh yes, by the way, I was in labor! I don’t think I’ve ever been so miserable in my life.

Let’s cut from that happy scene to the labor room where I was set up with a monitor and Heber by my side. I never wanted an epidural (cost too much and they weren’t as refined as they are now) so I tried my Hee Hee Hoo breathing exercises I had practiced so carefully for weeks. When a contraction hits full force no amount of Hee Hee Hooing will make it feel any better. Heber leaned over me gently encouraging me to Hee Hee Hoo and I just wanted to grab him and punch him.

Being my first I needed the salad spoons to help the little one through. Lisa was born at 8:58 AM on Wednesday, May 7, 1980. Her head was pointed for a day, but she was beautiful! Heber was a wonderful coach once we agreed on dropping the breathing exercises. Some of his family came to visit (of course overly concerned about Lisa’s pointed head and also wondering why the baby’s name was Lewis Trunnell and not Lisa Trunnell? The card on her isolette had the doctor’s last name and our last name).

After getting home from the hospital my Mom came up from California to stay and help for a week. She made me shrimp sandwiches and helped clean up the apartment. It was so much fun and I was sad to see her go. On my own I felt pretty blue and lost for a few weeks, but I so enjoyed my new daughter! She was such a nice sweet little baby! Heber’s sister Miriam gave us a bag of hand-me-down clothes and we were given so many gifts from friends and family. What a special time in our lives. Never again will we feel that incredible feeling of becoming a new family with our little one.

**Sidenote: I've been taking a writing class taught by my dear neighbor Marjean Beaman. This is the source for some of my recent blog entries. It's a fun once-a-month get together with friends and it 'forces' us to write down some personal stories and compile them in a notebook.